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Aussie Children's Author

March Madness

Round Four. In truth, when Ed asked us at the start of the tournament where we thought we’d finish, I didn’t expect to make it this far. I think that may be why I’ve second-guessed every poem I started this round! I’ve written four… started more (!!!)… polished two.

This is my first. I hope my second is better – because it’s the one I entered for the Madness, over at Ed DeCaria’s Think Kid, Think site!

Voting has started on Round Three of the March Madness poetry tournament, over at Ed DeCaria’s Think Kid, Think blog. The competition is fierce and beautiful. Two musical poems that both capture the essence of music. Whatever the outcome of today’s tightly contested poem, I’m so grateful to Ed and Allan, for pushing me to write this heartfelt sonnet. And whilst it’s making it very tricky for the voters, I’m also glad that Allan’s poem is heart too – in a humorous way. What a wonderful contrast of our words.

Go over now and vote! There are four match-ups left to be contested in this round. Some exquisite poetry.

I’m relieved and delighted to say that I made it through Round One of the March Madness – which was a tough battle against a great poem by Carol Wilc. I am now in the next ‘anxious wait’ period – waiting for my next word to be posted. In Round Two, I’m up against Laura Salas, who won Round One with her ‘knack’ poem.

As with all things to do with children’s writing, I am finding the competition to be fantastic fun and friendly! The children’s writing crew has always been one big happy family, and whilst I hadn’t met many of the #MMPoetry crew prior to this event, I am again enjoying being a part of a wider kid-lit community.

A fantabulous event over at Ed DeCaria’s Think Kid Think blog. I hope you can follow us into Round Two!

The March month of poetry Madness is well underway, over on Ed DeCaria’s ThinkKidThink blog. You really should visit, read and vote, because it’s a heap of fun! My Round One poem is now up – and the 36hr clock is ticking down…

My word was ‘dotted’ – and being the lower seeded poet (seeds are determined by degree of difficulty of the word) I knew I had to do something tricky to gain ground. I was hoping I wasn’t going too far out on a limb… (In fact, I had two poems I was tossing up between, and had to put it to a mini-in-house-vote to decide on an entry.) This morning I woke all anxious eagerness to read the poems, and I see that Carol, too has taken a risk with her poem. And done well! (I like risk-taking in poetry, but there always is that element of… risk!)

Click the picture to go direct to our poems.

So – what do you think? You’ll have to skip across to the melee of Madness, to find out. I’d love it if you vote for me – but seriously, you vote for the poem that you like best! (And while you’re there, check out all the other great battles, too. It’s fantastic. Well done, Ed!!!)

After writing a poem a day for January, and a haiku a day for February, it most definitely IS madness to have put my name down for a poetry tournament in March – but silly, smart or otherwise, I’ve done it. And I’m sure it will be fun! You can read more about it at Ed DeCaria’s blog, Think Kid, Think. (You can read the official rules here.)